Finalist 2010

01 April 2009

Woolly effort

The random beer generator that sits behind the walls of Marks & Spencer in Jervis Shopping Centre threw up a bottle of M&S IPA a few months ago. I've yet to encounter an M&S beer that's worth what they're charging for it (though the Carlow-brewed Irish Stout comes close), but the high turnover means I'll always buy a bottle of whatever's there just in case this is The One.

The IPA is not The One. It's barely even a Half. There's a vague hoppiness to the aroma but it makes it clear that big, sweet crystal malt is the driving force behind the whole thing. We get a little bit of hard bitterness at the start of the flavour, and a hint of floral notes at the end, but otherwise it's sweet, slightly sticky, toffee malt all the way through. Nothing is cloying or difficult, but none of it is particularly interesting either. This is a Marks & Spencer jumper of a beer.

Something I've noticed with bottle conditioned beers: UK BC beers taste bloody awful if the sediment slips in - it seems very important to let the bottle settle and then pour very carefully to avoid the foul gunge.

However, Belgian and Dutch BC beers it's up to you and it certainly doesn't taste bad at all. Indeed, some beers you keep the sediment until the end as a yeasty delight.

Merely a reference to the fact that M&S have a very wide beer portfolio which is provided simultaneously to stores in the UK, but they appear one at a time on the shelves in Ireland, suggesting that some machine is throwing them out and retracting them at randowm.